That may seem like an odd title for a CrossFit article but it has been on my mind for a few months. I know in CrossFit we are champions of better fitness and reaching the outter limits in performance which we do well. Almost every student that has attended classes at CrossFit Carmel has made great gains an have shown hardly any signs of slowing…
Somewhere though there is a CrossFit athlete who is seeing diminished returns when it comes to strength and the CrossFit Total. I know that sounds like a travesty and most everyone who reads this will start thinking of what is happening to cause this problem. Oddly enough I can answer a part of that. Getting older and losing weight.
I am now 46yrs old and while I have been able to maintain my PRs over the last couple of years for the most part and even adding a few pounds to them every couple of months. That is until I decided to change direction in my workout habits. I changed my habits due to an injury to my arm (tennis elbow) that stopped me from lifting with my usual take no prisoners attitude. I began to run and perform more cardio work and I am surprised to say this but I have grown to enjoy it.
I know cardio doesn’t mean your PRs have to decrease and as a general rule that would be true but in my case I lost about 25lbs and that has drastically affected my squat and deadlift totals. I am down 23lbs in my squat and 31lbs in my deadlift. I have intention of gaining the weight back as I have enjoyed having baggy pants and being able to actually concentrate on POSE running for more than 800 meters.
So do I erase those numbers on the board and write the new ones up there or do I just look at all the younger guys and say “I remember when…”.
